Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian :: Movie Review

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian :: Movie Review - Reviewed by Kidzworld on Jun 11, 2009

( Rating: )

Larry’s museum friends are shipped off the Smithsonian. Can he find a way to bring them back? Find out in Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian.

It’s been a few years since Larry (Ben Stiller) left his job as the Night Guard at the Museum of Natural History. Now he’s fulfilling his dream of becoming a big-time businessman, inventing and marketing products like the glow-in-the-dark flashlights. Fortunately, he’s not too much of a big shot to visit his old friends—namely the museum’s exhibits that come to life at night.

Change Isn’t Always for the Best

But on one visit, Larry finds all of his friends boxed and ready to be shipped off to the storage archives inside the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. The Museum of Natural History is going digital, using interactive holograms of the former displays to teach kids about history. Larry is outraged. Somehow, he must stop the shipment. But come sunrise, Larry is too late.

Evil Wins the Battle, But Good Wins the War

Larry wastes no time getting to the Smithsonian and infiltrating the archives where his friends are stored away. But before he can begin his rescue mission, he runs into trouble. An evil Egyptian pharaoh named Kahmunrah has come to life and seeks the tablet—the object that brings the exhibits to life. He plans to unleash the Army of the Underworld and take over the world.

A Team Divided Cannot Stand

A fierce battle begins as Kahmunrah gathers the wickedest men in history as followers: Napoleon, Ivan the Terrible and Al Capone. But Larry isn’t alone. He has more than just the miniature cowboy Jedidiah (Owen Wilson) and the rest of his New York friends on his side. He has Amelia Earhart (the first female pilot), a band of Einstein bobbleheads and a massive statue of former president Abraham Lincoln. In battle, Larry learns that “a team divided cannot stand”—a lesson he takes to heart.

The Bottom Line

Heartwarming. Exhilarating. Straight forward. Battle of the Smithsonian is brilliant! The battle scenes are less chaotic and easier to follow than those in the first film. Although Larry has left his night guard position, he never forgets his friends.

“Instruction in world history in the so-called high schools is even today in a very sorry condition. Few teachers understand that the study of history can never be to learn historical dates and events by heart and recite them by rote; that what matters is not whether the child knows exactly when this battle or that was fought, when a general was born, or even when a monarch (usually a very insignificant one) came into the crown of his forefathers. No, by the living God, this is very unimportant. To 'learn' history means to seek and find the forces which are the causes leading to those effects which we subsequently perceive as historical events.”